


Infinite DC Journeys: Seek

by LivingStoneWriter



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Hellboy (Comics), Hellboy (Movies 2004-2008), Hellboy - All Media Types, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 1980s, Action, Action/Adventure, Alien Time Lords (Doctor Who), Alternate Universe - 1980s, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Eleven | Jane Hopper's Eggos, Exploring the TARDIS, Gen, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Horror, Multiple Crossovers, Multiverse, Netflix and Chill, Supernatural Elements, TARDIS Rooms, The Upside Down
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29254632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LivingStoneWriter/pseuds/LivingStoneWriter
Summary: The strange case of missing Hawkins, Indiana resident Will Byers is retold in this Infinite DC Journeys adaptation of Netflix's hit series, Stranger Things. Si, the nineteenth regeneration of Neas, and her companion Hellboy set out to investigate Will's case, after uncovering a pocket universe connected to the town. Unfortunately, Si's snooping gets her closer than she initially desired, when she is trapped in the "Upside Down." Her only hope lies in Hellboy, a mysterious girl with unspeakable abilities, and the unlikely heroes of Hawkins, who will experience a night of Halloween they won't soon forget.
Relationships: Companion(s) & Time Lord(s) (Doctor Who), Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler, Time Lord(s) & TARDIS(es)





	1. Chapter 1

****

**Part One**

_Whenever you call me, I’ll be there  
Whenever you want me, I’ll be there  
Whenever you need me, I’ll be there  
I’ll be around_

In certain regenerations, Neas would acquire one that had the gift of song.

Such was the case of her nineteenth regeneration, who she named “Si.”

Physically a young woman of seventeen years of age, she sang with an angelic, soulful voice that harmonized throughout her T.A.R.D.I.S.

Gizmo, her pet Mogwai, was her only audience; perched on her shoulder, he chirped along to the acoustic melody she played on her guitar in her rendition of the Spinners’ “I’ll Be Around.”

The comforting session lasted for a short time before it was disrupted.

Rock music blared from further within the ship.

“Sounds like our recent ‘guest’ just woke up,” Si groaned, setting aside both her guitar and Gizmo on the console platform seat next to her. “Keep the tunes goin’ for me, Giz. I’ll be right back.”

The little Mogwai followed her lead, plucking at the guitar strings.

Si smiled, recognizing the melody he played as the one his previous owner, Billy Peltzer, once taught him.

She ultimately left the console room and went to one of the many bedrooms reserved for herself and her guests. There, she walked upon a space cluttered by trash, an array of electronics, and cats – among other things. It reeked with the scent of dry-roasted peanuts and cigar smoke.

At the center of it all was the _cause_ of it all, her companion: the one and (thankfully) only, Hellboy.

The well-meaning half-demon was shirtless and weight-lifting at the moment.

“What’s happenin’, kid?” he said with a lit cigar in his mouth.

Si could barely hear him through the loud rock music.

There were at least a dozen stereos in his room, any one of them being where the music blasted from.

Rather than guess, Si simply used her sonic screwdriver to shut all of them off.

“You _twisted_ my _sisters_ ,” Hellboy griped.

“That was Van Halen.”

“Really? Damn. These 80s rock bands sound all alike, after a while.”

“You know, I was in the middle of a session in the console room before your music _loudly_ interrupted mine.”

“How can ya even hear me all the way from there?”

“Because _that_ is how loud your music is!”

“Whatever happened to the big Italian lady? She was my kinda woman and a way better hostess than you.”

Si felt a headache coming on – one as big as Hellboy’s biceps.

“We’ve been through this _several_ times, H.B.,” she said. “Rickert got hurt real bad, and she had to regenerate…into _me_. And, as her successor, I take serious offense in how you talk about her like she’s _not_ me. I’m standing right in front of you!”

Now Hellboy felt a headache coming on.

“Yeah, I _still_ miss the big Italian lady,” he professed.

Si moaned with aggravation; it was like talking to a big kid.

Technically, Hellboy _was_ one.

Like Si herself, he did not physically look his age; he was sixty years old but barely out of his twenties.

Their spat was suddenly intruded by the violent lurching of the T.A.R.D.I.S.

The ringing of the cloister bell soon followed.

“What’s goin’ on?!” Hellboy exclaimed.

“I dunno,” Si remarked. “Let’s go find out.”

Together, they rushed back into the console room, finding a dazed Gizmo lying atop of Si’s slightly dented guitar on the floor. “You O.K., fuzz-ball?” Hellboy asked him, afterwards receiving a contented chirp in response from the tough little Mogwai.

“We’ve materialized out of the infinite dimensional corridor,” Si noted through the console readout. “But _I_ wasn’t anywhere near the controls.”

“You think the fuzz-ball might’ve done it?” Hellboy presumed.

Si questionably frowned at the presumption. “He was sitting _six feet_ away.”

Before Hellboy could have come up with any other asinine theories, Si brought up their new, unexpected destination on the view screen. They discovered that they arrived in a dark dimension devoid of human life, with ash-like spores floating in the air.

“O…kay,” Hellboy uncomfortably muttered. “That _doesn’t_ look good.”

“No,” Si acknowledged. “But I’m going out in it anyway.”

“You nuts?!” Hellboy said. “It looks like death out there!”

“So you’re coming with then?”

“Bet your sweet butt I am, kid.”

Hellboy armed himself with his usual assortment of items: his utility belt, his jacket, holy relics, horseshoes, various herbs, hand grenades, and his trusty, oversized revolver, which he called the “Good Samaritan.”

Si only required her sonic screwdriver, smarts, and a change of clothes.

The Time Lord and the half-demon trekked through the eerie atmosphere, seeing how it strongly resembled a small Midwestern town, one whose name they learned to be Hawkins, Indiana from the “Welcome” sign.

It was deathly quiet – not a single living soul to be found other than themselves.

Or so they thought until they detected movement within a nearby police station.

Hellboy readied the Good Samaritan while Si illuminated their path with her sonic screwdriver, both preparing themselves for whatever might’ve been scurrying around in the station.

As it soon turned out, what they cornered was a 12-year-old girl with shaven hair, wearing a hospital gown.

Si immediately had Hellboy lower his oversized revolver.

“It’s a kid,” the half-demon identified.

The girl was incredibly terrified, quivering as she looked on them.

“I think my handsome mug scares her,” Hellboy surmised. “I have that effect.”

Si didn’t want to admit that he might have been right in the assumption, noticing the girl’s gaze fixated more on Hellboy than her. Because of this, she soothingly told the frightened child, “It’s alright, sweetie. We’re not gonna hurt—”

A loud, ear-splitting shriek emitted out of nowhere inside the station.

Turning away from the girl, Si and Hellboy spotted a tall, thin humanoid creature with a head absent of any facial features, opening like a flower to reveal nothing but teeth.

“Ah, crap,” Hellboy cursed. “I knew it!”

“I’ll get the girl out of here,” Si notified. “You deal with…whatever _that_ is!”

She didn’t have to pull Hellboy’s Right Hand of Doom to get him to concede; he went right away with combating the predatory creature, while Si got the girl to her T.A.R.D.I.S. for safety.

Hellboy eventually caught up, marginally battered from his fight.

“Let’s get the hell outta here,” he ordered Si.

She tried escaping back into the infinite dimensional corridor but experienced difficulty in doing so. “There’s high interference we’re getting from this dimension,” she isolated the issue.

“That freakin’ wallflower-head’s gonna catch up with us,” Hellboy alarmed. “And when it does, it’s gonna—!”

He and Si both froze as soon as the girl they found approached the control console.

She placed her right hand on the console and, all of a sudden, the Type-Z dematerialized back into the infinite D.C.

By this circumstance, it became clear to the travelers that the girl possessed special powers – ones that could influence even a T.A.R.D.I.S.


	2. Chapter 2

****

**Part Two**

“Ya know, workin’ in the B.R.P.D. or just bein’ the type of guy I am, ya’d think I’d seen it all,” Hellboy reflected. “But I gotta admit – I ain’t _ever_ seen a telepath like this kid do what _she_ did a while ago.”

Si herself had to profess to her half-demon companion’s reflection.

She was a two-hundred-thousand-year-old Time Lord who had traveled across over a billion different worlds in the multiverse; not in a single one of them had she encountered a girl powerful enough to control _her_ T.A.R.D.I.S.

Si walked right up to the girl, who fancied the technological wonders of the control console.

“What’s your name, honey?” Si asked her, yet the girl merely just stared at her. “Do you have a name? My name’s Si. And that tall red fella back there is named Hellboy. What’s _your_ name?”

After a moment of some hesitation, the girl held up her left forearm.

On it, Si noticed the numbers “0,” “1,” “1” branded on the girl’s skin.

“Eleven?” The Time Lady interpreted. “Your name’s ‘Eleven’?”

The girl nodded.

“I happen to know another person who goes by ‘Eleven’,” Si snickered. “That is, that version of him sometimes does. Usually, we just call him ‘Doctor’.” Realizing she was veering off topic – something that she tended to do in this regeneration, she refocused on Eleven. “Do you have any parents? A mother? A father?”

Eleven gave no reply.

“Think she’s broken,” Hellboy said.

“She’s _not_ broken,” Si countered. “She’s just…reserved.”

“Which is a fancy way of sayin’, ‘She’s broken’.”

The red brute’s commentary was not helping whatsoever; but Si didn’t let it distract her from what she attempted next: “I’m going to look into her mind.”

Hellboy beamed at the idea. “Hey, that’s right! You’re a telepath, too!”

Si slowly motioned her hands towards Eleven’s shaven head.

The gesture made Eleven recoil in fear.

“It’s alright, sweetie,” Si assured her. “This isn’t going to hurt at all.”

Eleven trusted the kindness of this young woman, who physically looked to be close in age with her.

Si gently placed her hands against the sides of Eleven’s head.

Shutting her eyes thereafter, she focused.

A few fragmented memories flashed: Eleven’s childhood, unusual experiments conducted to examine her mental capacity, and – in the midst of it all – a white-haired man in a suit and lab coat, observing the experiments.

_Papa_.

Eleven’s father. At least, Si hoped that it wasn’t.

How could a father ever be so cruel as to put his daughter through the torture that he had with her?

Si tried to dig deeper, but she suddenly found her own thoughts deflected back to her: the centuries she spent fighting in the Time War as Candace, the Mortal Kombat tournament she participated in as Margie, marrying her only true love Heather Lockhart as Neas, and Shyla – the child they bore together.

Eleven was now reading _her_ mind!

Si severed the link right away, falling back and gasping.

“Kid,” Hellboy cried, kneeling to help her sit back up. “You O.K.?”

Si felt her nose running, lightly touching her upper lip with her index finger and discovering blood on the tip of it.

Both hers and Eleven’s left nostrils seeped with the crimson fluid.

“I’m fine,” she reassured Hellboy. “S-She just surprised me…that’s all.”

“This kid’s gotta be even stronger in telepathy than _you_ to knock ya on your butt like that,” Hellboy perceived. “Were ya able to find out anything while you were searchin’ around in there?”

Si shook her head. “Not much.”

“Time Lord,” they heard Eleven utter – her first words to them.

However, what she said astounded Hellboy more than her ability to speak. “How does she know what you are?” he asked.

“Because while I was looking into _her_ mind, she looked back into _mine_ ,” Si said.

Without warning, Eleven moved back towards the T.A.R.D.I.S. control console and once again placed her hand down on it. Hellboy and Si heard the familiar humming and grinding of the T.A.R.D.I.S. engines not much sooner afterward.

“Has she taken us _out_ of the dimensional corridor?” Si wondered.

She brought up their newest destination on the view screen.

A forest of some kind that was normal in appearance.

Together, the dimension-hopping trio of travelers stepped out of the Gallifreyan module to breathe in air that was far more breathable than that of the dark dimension.

“Smells like fall,” Si even noted.

Hellboy cringed. “What exactly does fall _smell_ like?”

“Never mind that,” Si insisted. “I’m going further out to investigate this new world. You stay in the T.A.R.D.I.S. with Eleven.”

“Seriously?!” a demoralized Hellboy reacted. “You’re benchin’ me?!”

“I don’t wanna leave Eleven alone.”

“The kid’s proven more than once to us that she can handle things herself!”

“It’s not just her, H.B. I need _you_ to stay for your own good.”

Hellboy was crestfallen in realization of her logic. “You mean that you want me to stay put here ‘cause of the way I look.”

Si hated for that to be the case, but it was just how things were.

“We don’t know what kind of world this is yet,” she reasoned, “and I’d rather not take the risk.”

Hellboy did not say another word.

Instead, he discouragingly followed through with Si’s command, returning back into the T.A.R.D.I.S. with Eleven, while Si voyaged out into the new world.

Moments later, she reached the town of Hawkins, Indiana.

It looked vastly different in the real world as opposed to the dark dimension.

This urged Si to methodically consider the two dimensions running parallel to each other, with Eleven serving as a possible link between them. How else could she bring the Type-Z in and out of the two worlds?

In her wandering through town, Si sighted many of the townsfolk dressed retroactively – somewhere between early to mid-eighties from what she could gather on the hairstyles, vehicles, and product brands. Her perception proved to be correct, as soon as she spotted the date at a newspaper stand.

October 31st, 1983.

It was Halloween.

_Dang. Now I feel terrible for telling poor Hellboy to stay behind._

Quickly moving beyond her guilt, her eyes followed from the newspaper to a flyer for a missing boy named Will Byers. She stared at it for longer than she should have, managing to attract the attention of a local.

“Do you know him?”

Si turned to see a teenaged boy – an attractive one, at that – holding more flyers.

“N-No,” she replied, momentarily distracted from how cute the teenager looked. “Do you?”

The boy despondently sighed. “Yeah…he’s my brother.”

Si’s attitude towards him changed dramatically, turning from fixation to remorse. “What happened?” she asked.

“He just…didn’t come home one night. And that was a week ago. Our mother’s been worried sick. She thinks that the lights in our house are communicating with her or some crazy $#%* I don’t even understand.”

Remorse soon gave way for intrigue, as Si requested of the teen, “Could you take me to see your mother? I might be able to help.”  
  


* * *

  
Hellboy fumed with impatience and irritation over the purpose for his seclusion.

As in the right as Si was to keep him there in the T.A.R.D.I.S. and out of sight from whatever civilization there was past those woods, the fact that he couldn’t walk among society even in another dimension aggravated him.

“I’m sorry, kid,” he told Eleven, after minutes of pacing around the console room with her. “Somethin’s beggin’ me to get out there and find out what’s up, and I’m no use to our blonde friend out there, if I’m lodged up in here.”

He flipped the switch on the control console that permitted him exodus.

On his way out, he felt something tug at his Right Hand of Doom, noticing it to have been Eleven, whose face registered deep apprehension.

“I won’t be gone long, kid,” Hellboy promised. “You’re in one of the most impenetrable alien ships in the multiverse. You’ll be just fine.”

The half-demon departed, leaving the special girl standing alone in the vast ship.

Its limitless power began to fluctuate in correspondence with her rising anxiety.


	3. Chapter 3

****

**Part Three**

_It’s Halloween?! Dammit! I knew that kid had no right to keep me cooped up in that damned ship of hers!_

Needless to say, Hellboy wasn’t pleased once he saw the date on a newspaper stand in the town of Hawkins. Halloween was the only time when he could step out and be himself, without scaring any women or children. Everyone would just think his own genetic exterior was nothing more than a Halloween costume.

And that turned out to be just the case, as he passed by many Hawkins citizens.

He received compliments from some younger residents, ridiculed by some of the older ones, and criticized by one old lady. “You hooligans and your worshipping Satan,” she said. “I will pray for you tonight, poor soul.”

“Whatever, lady,” Hellboy’s only response was.

He soaked it all in, grinning from ear-to-ear, until he got more attention than he wanted – particularly from the local authorities.

A truck marked with “Hawkins Police Dept.” on the side doors pulled in right beside Hellboy and parked there. Its driver, Hawkins’ chief of police, firmly stepped out and approached the half-demon.

“Is there a problem, officer?” he asked the police chief, whose name he learned was “Hopper” from the nametag clipped on his right shirt pocket.

“Don’t get _cute_ , son,” Hopper scolded. “That costume is inappropriate enough.”

“Inappropriate?!” Hellboy bafflingly blurted. “It’s freakin’ Halloween!”

“You think this is funny?” Hopper derided. “You know damn well Halloween’s been called off, on account of that missing kid.”

Hellboy failed to realize it until that second, but there was a noticeable lack of festive decorations or even sales on costumes throughout the town. He was the only one there who seemed to have been “celebrating” the day.

Adding fuel to the fire, Hopper scathingly asked, “Aren’t you a little old to be trick-or-treating anyway?” He didn’t allow Hellboy enough time to respond. “Go home,” he ordered. “Take off that ridiculous costume before I decide _not_ to let you off with a warning.”

And like that, he _hopped_ back into his truck and drove away.

It boggled Hellboy’s mind as to how one missing boy could have caused an entire town to cancel a special day like Halloween.

“Chief’s gotta be on the sauce again, if he thinks _that_ costume’s ‘ridiculous’.”

Hellboy noticed a freckled teenager standing behind him, with his redheaded girlfriend clinging onto him.

“You think it’s cool?” Hellboy inquired of the teen.

“I think it’s kick @$$,” he answered. “You should totally wear it to the Halloween bash happenin’ tonight at Steve Harrington’s place.”

“Whadda ‘bout the ban on Halloween?” Hellboy asked.

“Who cares about some kid that probably got sliced up by his insane brother?” the boy’s redheaded girlfriend said. “Tonight’s the night to get trashed and laid!”  
  


* * *

  
Jonathan Byers was the name Si learned to be of the brother of the missing boy, Will. She rode with him back to his house in the most rural part of Hawkins. Before they entered, Jonathan stopped for a moment to give Si a warning:

“You might see some weird stuff in there. It’s been a difficult couple of days.”

Si was not perturbed whatsoever. “I’ve seen my share of disturbing things,” she professed. “You won’t have to worry about me.”

Taking her word for it, Jonathan led her into an interior rigged with dozens of Christmas lights. Si could hear Jonathan gasp at the unsettling scene. “It’s gotten much worse over the last few hours,” he noted.

A manic, disheveled woman emerged from the kitchen, saying to Jonathan, “I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve found a way to communicate with him.”

“Mom,” a visibly distraught Jonathan addressed the woman, who turned out to have been Joyce Byers. “What’re you doin’? What is all of this?”

Joyce took them into the living room.

One of the walls was strung up with Christmas lights and had letters of the alphabet painted below each bulb.

Jonathan could not take much more.

Si, on the other hand, was beyond intrigued by Joyce’s arrangement.

“You said that you’re using all of this to communicate with Will?” Si queried while using her sonic screwdriver to scan over the display.

“Y-Yes,” Joyce stammered, baffled as to who the strange young woman was.

“Where is it you think he’s communicating from?” Si continued to pry.

“I’m sorry, but _who_ are you?” Joyce asked. “Jonathan, is this a friend of yours from school?”

“No,” Jonathan angrily said, growing more discouraged from Si’s presence in their home. “I thought you were here to help me with my mother. You’re only just _encouraging_ her over all this craziness.”

“Your mom’s not crazy,” Si told Jonathan. “In fact, she may be onto something.”

“Onto _what_?!” Jonathan gallingly exclaimed.

Ceasing her scan of the living room wall, Si calmly approached Joyce. “Could you try and communicate with Will again for me?”

Her request made Jonathan groan, his frustrations rising every second.

Joyce was more than willing to oblige, going to the wall and talking to her unseen son: “Will? Honey? I know you’re there. We’re here for you, and we’re trying whatever we can to help. I…I just need to know you’re still there.”

For a moment, nothing happened. The lights hadn’t blinked.

And then they did, randomly spelling out a word above each letter.

T – I – M – E

Joyce’s brow furrowed. “Time? Time for what, sweetheart? A-Are you running out of time wherever you are?”

Again, the lights blinked, spelling a new word.

L – O – R – D

Si was stunned to see that Will had spelt “Time Lord,” a term that otherwise baffled Joyce and Jonathan.

“What does that mean, honey? You have to tell us,” Joyce implored.

Suddenly, every light in the Byers household blinked rapidly.

Jonathan could not begin to get a grasp as to what was happening in their once-peaceful home, whereas Joyce was scared half to death.

“Both of you need to get out of here _now_ ,” Si cagily ordered.

“Why?” Joyce questioned. “What’s going on?!”

“You just need to leave this second,” Si told her. “Something is trying to break through the dimensional barriers.”

It sounded insane to the two Byers residents, but they followed through with Si’s command after some hesitation. Once outside their home, Jonathan urged his mother to get in his car, so that the both of them could drive away and perhaps stay at a hotel for the night. Joyce, however, was more determined to do the opposite.

“We have to get back inside and help that girl,” she insisted.

“Mom, that girl is crazy,” Jonathan contended. “This whole thing is _crazy_!”

“But you saw it! You saw the message Will sent us!”

“It’s an electrical issue! What the hell is ‘Time Lord’ supposed to mean?!”

Their dispute ended with a horrifying scream that resounded from inside their house. Rushing back inside, they found Si no longer there.

She had disappeared, leaving behind her sonic screwdriver.


	4. Chapter 4

****

**Part Four**

Si awoke with a raspy, wheezing cough.

She was unable to rightly remember _how_ she lost consciousness in the first place, but that was the least of her worries.

As she regained focus, she discovered that she was back in the dark dimension.

A twisted version of the Byers’ living room around her, complete with overgrown ropy, root-like tendrils and biological membranes covering every inch of it. Joyce’s wall of alphabetized lights was even there, partially obscured by the tendrils.

And the worst part of it all was that Si did not have her sonic screwdriver.

“Crap,” she cursed her lousy luck.

The screams of a frightened child lured her outside.

She was amazed to see it to be Will Byers himself, running away from the dark version of his house.

“Will,” Si called to him.

He stopped, looking back at her in confusion. “Who are _you_?!”

“I’m here to help,” Si caught up to him.

“There’s nothing you can do to help me. You’re stuck here, too.”

He was right. Si arrived there by total accident twice already; only this time it was not by her T.A.R.D.I.S. Without it, she was as trapped as Will was.

But she could not let him know how scared and helpless she felt.

He needed to have hope.

“I’ve had _many_ experiences with parallel dimensions – even the twisted, upside-down ones like this,” she told him. “I’m the Time Lord you messaged your mother about. Now I don’t know how _you_ know that I am one, but I…”

“I never sent my mother any messages about a…whatever it is you said.”

Si winced with suspicion. “You didn’t? Then who did?”

She saw Will’s face snap with horror, seeing something behind her.

She turned and noticed the source of Will’s fright: a gargantuan, spider-like being far in the distance.

It appeared to have spotted them, giving chase immediately.

“RUN!” Si didn’t have to bother with that command, as Will’s feet were already moving before hers, fleeing from the horrifying creature.  
  


* * *

  
Steve Harrington’s Halloween bash kicked into high gear, thanks to the super popularity of one guest: the kid in the sick devil bounty hunter costume that he called “Hellboy.” The other kids cheered him on, chanting his name, as he successfully drank ten straight kegs of beer and was not the least bit wasted afterward.

Nancy Wheeler, a guest at the party and Steve’s girlfriend, developed much curiosity about him. “Your costume’s very…lifelike,” she observed. “You must be _incredibly_ rich to make something so extravagant.”

“My mom’s just got some serious sowing skills, you know what I mean?” Hellboy fibbed, puffing on a cigarette.

“Hey, what’s up with Barb?” Steve diverted the topic. “I saw her heading out back by the pool, all by herself.”

Nancy sighed and griped, “She’s been a total buzzkill since we got here. She didn’t even bother wearing a costume. I’m gonna go out there and talk to her. Maybe try and get her to lighten up a little.”

“I’ll take care of it, kid,” Hellboy offered. “You just keep havin’ fun.”

Nancy was grateful for him stepping in like that; it gave her more time to spend with Steve, the only actual reason she came to this raucous party.

Hellboy found Barb desolately sitting alone on the diving board, dangling her bare feet over the water. “You O.K., kid?” he asked her. “Quite the bash happenin’ in there. You ain’t interested in bein’ part of it?”

Barb took one look at him and fell into instant disgust. “If you don’t mind me saying, your costume is _hideous_.”

Hellboy chuckled. “Well, we all can’t be runway models.”

“I just don’t belong with this type of crowd,” Barb stated. “A bunch of rowdy, alcoholic, sex-crazed @$$holes.”

“Jeez, kid,” Hellboy uttered, impressed at her bluntness. “Am I in that category?”

“That depends,” Barb said. “Is there anything _better_ you could be doing with your life right now, instead of getting drunk?”

This question she posed to him made Hellboy feel deep shame.

There _was_ something better he could be doing: watching over Eleven in Si’s T.A.R.D.I.S.

He left her there alone, thinking only of himself.

In his self-loathing, he failed to see something tall and ominous emerge from the shadows and loom over Barb. It was the creature he fought back in the dark dimension – the one with the flower-like head of teeth, which it used to consume Barb’s entire head, decapitating her.

Her lifeless body fell into the pool, turning the water crimson as it bled out.

“You ugly son of a…!” Hellboy vengefully swore at the creature, firing bullets from the Good Samaritan into its body to no avail.

Again, he clashed with the monster.

Their tussle crashed into Steve’s house and the Halloween bash altogether.

At first, the guests took the battle between the flower-headed creature and half-demon to have been a cool Halloween spectacle that Steve arranged for the party. They should have known from Steve’s unsettled demeanor that was _not_ the case.

Unfortunately, the partygoers found out the hard way.

One guest – a boy dressed like Indiana Jones – was impaled at the chest by Hellboy’s monstrous opponent.

Convinced this to have _not_ been part of the entertainment, the panicked guests barreled out of the house. This included Steve and Nancy, both of whom Hellboy decided to flee with in Steve’s car. He continued firing on the pursuing creature, slowing it down to provide them with a flawless escape.

Steve’s nerves were shot as he sat behind the wheel. “What the hell was that thing?!” he frantically asked.

“Something we thought we dealt with in another dimension,” Hellboy dejectedly answered. “Only now it’s reared its ugly head somewhere it doesn’t belong.” He then instructed to Steve, “Drive out into the woods. There’s someplace safe we can go to figure out how to deal with this thing.”  
  


* * *

  
“I don’t think we should be doing this, Mike.”

“We got to, Lucas. It’s been a week and Will _still_ hasn’t been found.”

“Besides, with Halloween canceled, we gotta do more than just sit on our @$$es.”

Mike Wheeler and his friends, Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair, biked out late that night, taking it upon themselves to investigate the disappearance of their missing friend, Will Byers.

They began their search for clues near the location of Will’s house.

What they ultimately came across was something neither one of them could explain or comprehend.

A tall, flat black rectangular solid standing out in the middle of the forest.

“What the hell is this thing?” Lucas inquired of it. “Where did it come from?”

“I dunno,” Dustin said. “But it looks like a giant VHS tape.”

“You guys think this thing could be what happened to Will?” Mike pondered.

“Alien.”

The boys jolted with surprise at the voice speaking behind them, not expecting anyone else to have been out in those woods.

A girl. A shaven-headed girl stood there in front of them.


	5. Chapter 5

****

**Part Five**

After what happened to Si, a frantic Joyce had no other choice but to call Jim Hopper over. This could have been a new lead on the case of her missing son. She tried to explain the situation to Hopper in full detail, no matter how insane any of it sounded.

Hearing about the girl (Si) and how she was helping to find Will, Hopper came to the only feasible conclusion: “She was pranking you guys. Some dumb kids at school probably put her up to it.”

“Hopp, do we know any kids stupid enough to pull such a cruel prank, using _this_?” She showed him the bizarre tool Si left behind in her living room.

Hopper grimaced at the device. “What the hell _is_ that?”

“I don’t know,” Joyce said. “But that girl used it to help us talk with Will, and the next thing we know, all the lights in our house go crazy.”

“Joyce, she probably used this thing to do just that to scare you.”

“Again I ask, Hopp, _who_ would waste the time and intelligence to do that?!”

Unable to convince her of the possible truth, Jim was ready to give up; but he needed to know more about this unusual girl who used unusual tools to conduct fraudulent investigations.

For that, he had to address the person who spoke to her first: Jonathan.

“Do you know anything else about this girl?” He asked him.

Jonathan shrugged. “Other than the fact she looked cute, nothing much.”

While Jonathan did his best to answer the chief’s questions, Joyce felt Si’s crazy device intensely pulsating in her hands when pointed at a specific direction. “Guys, look at this,” she directed Hopper and Jonathan’s attention to it. “I think it’s working like a metal detector now. It might lead us somewhere we’ll find Si and Will.”  
  


* * *

  
“This place is mental. It’s _way_ cooler than the Millennium Falcon.”

Dustin’s observation of the alien spaceship he, Mike, and Lucas discovered in the woods came shortly after the girl they found with it brought them into its dimensionally disproportionate interior.

Mike, on the other hand, was more captivated by the girl, whose name they learned to be Eleven from the numbered tattoo on her left forearm.

“Is this where you live, Elle?” He asked her.

Eleven shook her head and again only said, “Alien.”

“Well, the fact that it’s bigger on the inside gives _that_ way,” Lucas noted.

“Who does it belong to?” Mike questioned Eleven.

She responded by placing her hand on the control console, influencing the ship to bring up an image of a beautiful teenaged blonde on the console monitor.

Dustin was instantly enchanted. “Holy $#%*! She’s even hotter than Nancy!”

“Dude…Seriously?!” Mike remarked in disgust.

“How does a normal-looking girl like her own an alien spaceship like this?” Lucas deliberated.

“She’s Supergirl,” Dustin alluded. “Alien on the inside, human on the outside.”

“Missing,” Eleven uttered.

Mike drew his own hypothesis from her random remark. “You mean that girl on the screen is missing? Where could she be?”

They suddenly heard a car driving up outside.

Stepping out of the alien spaceship, they saw it to be Steve Harrington, Mike’s sister Nancy, and a guy wearing some type of Halloween costume of a devil bounty hunter. Mike, Lucas, and Dustin were impressed by it.

“Sick costume, man,” Lucas told him.

“I…I don’t think it’s a costume, fellas,” Steve apprehensively pointed out.

“Hellboy,” Eleven identified the costumed stranger with a judgmental tone.

“Look, kid,” Hellboy said. “I’m sorry that I—”

Without warning, Hellboy was flung across the air by an unseen force, smacking against a tree.

“I deserved that,” he groaned.

The blood trickling out of Eleven’s left nostril was enough to convince Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Nancy, and Steve that she possessed some kind of telepathic abilities. To see it up close astounded them.

“This girl gets cooler every second,” Dustin commented.

Nancy’s attention moved away from the telepathic girl to the giant domino-shaped spacecraft near them, opened to reveal its dimensionally disproportionate interior. “What is _this_?!”

“A spaceship that gets in and out of other dimensions,” Hellboy answered, gathering himself. “And that thing back there is from one of ‘em. It killed Barb.”

“Barb’s dead?” Nancy gasped. Devastated, she cried into Steve’s shoulder.

“What ‘thing’ are you talking about?” Mike asked.

Before Hellboy could answer, a Hawkins Police Dept. truck pulled in right next to Steve’s car. Jim Hopper got out of it with Joyce and Jonathan Byers; when he saw the domino-shaped, dimensionally-disproportionate alien spaceship, his jaw dropped.

“This might just be the weirdest night of my life,” he reflected.

Hellboy noticed Joyce with a familiar device pulsating in her hands.

“Where the hell did you get that?!” He unforgivingly inquired. “That’s Si’s.”

“ _You_ know her,” a surprised Joyce said.

“Yeah, I know her,” Hellboy grumbled. “Where is she?”

“The Upside Down,” said Eleven, whose response drew perplexed glances from the people around her.  
  


* * *

  
Si and Will ran for hours, doing what they could to stay out of sight from the gargantuan spider entity. The best place for them to hide was the Hawkins Public Library – or the dark dimension’s version of it.

“What does it want from us?” Will asked.

“It wants something mostly from _me_ ,” Si said.

“What are you to it? Why are you so important?”

“This may sound crazy – then again, we’re smack-dab in the middle of ‘crazy’ – but I’m an alien from another planet within another dimension known as Gallifrey.”

It was a lot for Will to process, but he ultimately found the idea amusing.

“So…you’re like E.T., only just…you know…prettier,” he observed.

Si blushed from the compliment and even more so when Will noted afterward:

“And if there’s anyone I’d want to be trapped in a parallel dimension with, I’m glad that it’s someone as brave as you are.”

As flattered as she was to hear this, Si promised him, “I’ll get you back home, Will, by whatever means necessary.”

Their moment of peace was disrupted by the quaking of the library’s foundation.

It could only have meant the spider entity had found them.


	6. Chapter 6

****

**Part Six**

“Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap.”

Hellboy had fallen into deep despair, having heard what had become of the only person able to pilot the Type-Z T.A.R.D.I.S. between dimensions.

In his desperation, he paced all throughout the console room.

The eyes of the Hawkins residents followed him, wondering how long he would go on. Even Dustin realized at one point, “Dude, you said ‘crap’ over fifty times in under a minute.”

“She doesn’t have her T.A.R.D.I.S. and she doesn’t have her sonic thingamajig,” Hellboy reflected. “How in the _hell_ are we gonna save her?”

He hardly noticed Eleven brisk past him, approaching the control console.

She placed her hand on the alien machinery and the entire room marginally quaked around them. “We’re here,” she told the others.

“Where?” Mike quizzically inquired.

Hellboy should have remembered the inexplicable connection Eleven had to the T.A.R.D.I.S. She brought them to the dark dimension, which she referred as “The Upside Down,” with a simple touch.

“Well, the hard part’s done,” Hellboy said. “The _harder_ part is finding where Si and the kid are.” A shrewd grin manifested on the half-demon’s mug. “And I know just the thing.”

“What’ve ya got?” Hopper asked him.

“There’s this song Si sang all the damn time that annoyed the crap outta me,” Hellboy said. “Maybe we can use that.”

Together with the Hawkins inhabitants, Hellboy rerouted the speakers within the console room to play the Spinners’ “I’ll Be Around” outside of the T.A.R.D.I.S. It broadcasted across the Upside Down, presumably alerting every possible living thing within a 100-mile radius to its location.

“This is a _really_ bad idea, man,” Lucas noted.

“Yeah, it is,” Hellboy wholeheartedly agreed. “But it’s the only one I’ve got, so I’m goin’ with it.”  
  


* * *

  
The spider entity was relentless.

It repeatedly shook the foundation of the public library.

Inside were Si and Will, both holding onto each other for dear life. Will would have considered it an esteemed pleasure to be hugging a girl as gorgeous as Si had his life not been in danger.

Just when it seemed like the end for them, the entity stopped.

“W-What’s going on?” Will questioned.

Si wondered the same, right before they heard music – a familiar tune to Si’s ears.

“The Spinners,” she acknowledged it. “That’s ‘I’ll Be Around’! That’s my song! My favorite song!”

It was _literally_ music to her ears, as it meant just what she imagined it to be:

“They’ve found us! I don’t know how, but they did!”

Will found it too good to be true. “How do you know for sure?”

“Because there’s only one guy in the multiverse I know who _hates_ that song.”

“That thing’s still over us. How’re we supposed to get past it?”

“It’s after _me_ , Will, not you. I’ll buy you time by getting its attention.”

“No! I can’t let you risk your life like that! Not for me!”

“Yes, you will. Because yours matters _way_ more than mine.”

Will knew there was no changing this girl’s mind, so he went with her plan. While Si called to the entity’s attention, Will headed in the direction that the music blared from, which he figured to have been out in the woods. Sure enough, Si was right: the entity paid no mind to him as he ran away; instead, its focus was squarely on Si.

“Alright, Daddy Long Legs,” Si addressed the entity. “It’s time for answers. How do you know so much about Time Lords? You’re looking at one of the only ones this side of the multiverse. So why the big interest, huh? I’m not the first you’ve encountered, am I?” She asked that last question in dreaded realization, hoping in both of her hearts that this gargantuan, smoky creature had not come across the likes of the Doctor or Aznavorian, her father.

The entity did not speak (and Si had no reason to believe that it could).

But it _did_ communicate with her telepathically.

A series of horrific images flashed in her mind.

Terrified, she ran from the entity; surprisingly, it did not bother to pursue her.  
  


* * *

  
Will knew he was heading in the right direction the louder the music got. Ahead of him, he saw something that looked like a giant VHS tape standing in the middle of the dark forest. His mother, brother, friends, and the chief of police stood around it, joined by a girl his age with a shaven head and a guy dressed like a demon bounty hunter.

“Will,” Joyce joyously cheered, embracing her son along with Jonathan, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas.

Hellboy didn’t see Si with him, which made the half-demon a little uneasy.

“Hate to interrupt this happy reunion,” he said. “But where’s Si?”

“She stayed behind, so that I could get away,” Will informed.

_Dammit, kid! What’re ya thinkin’?!_

His Good Samaritan drawn, Hellboy rushed away to save Si; he hadn’t noticed how Eleven followed him close behind.  
  


* * *

  
Si had reached the forest when she heard a loud shriek.

Her body froze, seeing the humanoid creature with the unusual flower-head of teeth advancing towards her fast. She tried to outrun it, but it unfortunately caught up with her, pinning her to the ground and intending on consuming her.

“HEY, UGLY!!!”

She was saved by Hellboy, who blasted the hideous monster with the Good Samaritan a few times to get its attention away from her.

It worked all too well.

The creature engaged in another round with the half-demon, who did everything in his power to defeat it. Once again, it exhibited itself as the mightier of the two, subduing Hellboy in seconds.

“You’re really startin’ to piss me off,” he cursed his opponent.

It appeared to have shared in the sentiment, roaring and spitting in Hellboy’s face.

All of the sudden, it was flung off him and restrained by an invisible force.

Recognizing this occurrence, Hellboy saw Eleven with her right arm outstretched towards the creature. Blood streamed out of her nose and eyes, clearly pushing her power beyond its limits.

“Whaddya doin’, kid?!” Hellboy cried. “Stop before ya kill yourself!”

Eleven did not stop. She pushed herself harder, screaming in agony as the creature dissolved into a thick mist in which she too vanished.

Hellboy wasn’t sure what to make of what just happened.

Eleven scarified herself to save him and Si.

“Si!” he exclaimed, once he was reminded of the fallen Time Lady.

She laid there on the ground, still and unconscious.  
  


* * *

  
Moments later, she reawakened back in the console room of her T.A.R.D.I.S.

“Will,” she gasped, her aquamarine eyes snapping open to see Hellboy hovering over her. “What happened? Is Will okay?”

“The kid’s fine – a little shaken up but fine,” Hellboy told her. “He’s holdin’ up with his friends and family in the kitchen. We were just waitin’ for ya to wake up, so we can get outta this ‘Upside Down’ place.”

“What about Eleven? I saw her with you before I zoned out.”

Hellboy was reluctant to answer. “She, uh…She risked her life to stop that thing.”

“Oh, no,” Si lamented. “Poor girl.”

“Yeah. But at least we saved the day again. Eh, kid?”

Si did not feel as victorious as her big, red companion. “There was another monster Will and I faced before you guys found us. It showed me a vision of countless worlds overtaken by the dark dimension. They’re seeking out each one, and Hawkins was the first on the list.”

“Judgin’ by that unwaverin’ tone of yours, I’m guessin’ our business here isn’t as finished as I thought.”

His Time Lady associate glared. “We’re only just getting started, H.B.”


End file.
